


an excellent thing in woman

by voltemand



Category: Succession (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voltemand/pseuds/voltemand
Summary: Shiv thinks about being born backwards, her feet stretching to reach the ground. “I love you,” she tells him. Recently, that’s become her crutch,I love you.Despite recent developments, she’s still allowed to say it. Even if she wasn’t, she’s never been afraid to skirt the rules.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	an excellent thing in woman

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _King Lear_.

She is a breech. Carefully they cut her mother open, lifting the baby out as it screams. Shiv—her father chooses that one, Siobhan for the grace of God—pisses on the nurse’s hand. She is pink. She bellows. She does not cry.

Connor and Roman had been easy births, and Kendall easier still. Shiv is the exception. In her more maudlin hours, after a glass of wine or a chapter of Edith Wharton (gleaming galas and secret sins, she gets emotional in the face of _more_ ), she thinks that she has always been the exception.

When Tom asks her why Logan calls her Pinky, she tells him the truth. “I was a gross-looking baby.” She pauses, licks her lips. “Thank God that changed.”

He nods, calls her beautiful. Tom has always been squeamish about birth, the messiness of it. The cavern opening up, erupting into a new world. They’re careful about sex. “I want her to be _perfect_ ,” Tom says, and by _her_ he means their future daughter. “I don’t want us to fuck up.”

Shiv thinks about being born backwards, her feet stretching to reach the ground. “I love you,” she tells him. Recently, that’s become her crutch, _I love you._ Despite recent developments, she’s still allowed to say it. Even if she wasn’t, she’s never been afraid to skirt the rules.

\--

At some hippie event, they have to do icebreakers. “Favorite scar?” The prompt is from a skinny white guy sitting hunched in the corner, his face alarmingly round compared to the rest of him. He looks like one of those bobbleheads you can buy in Chinatown: cheap, poorly made, and in it for the attention.

When it’s her turn, Shiv goes for the easiest one: “On my stomach. I had appendicitis when I was a kid.” It’s bland, tasteful. She likes it; if she ever has to do this again, it’ll be her go-to.

She feels one of the other intern’s eyes on her. He introduces himself later, running his hand through his hair, although she doesn’t remember his name now. Later, when they fuck, she’s careful to keep her midriff covered. “How was it?” he asks afterward. He’s greasy. His knuckles are thin and hairy, his breath shuddering. In a word: loser.

“Boring,” she says, because she doesn’t need this internship, will never need an internship, and she leaves with her chin high. Her shirt is still neat.

\--

Shiv eats her steaks rare. She likes how they look on her plate, a princess’s heart fit for an evil queen, but mostly it’s because of the gush, the release when her teeth sink in. To want, she knows, is to bite down and to relish it.

She comes to this realization on her first (blind) date with one Nate Sofrelli, a lesser scion. He orders the cheapest thing on the menu. A-few-millionaires are so thrifty. Nonetheless, he’s handsome, and she decides that they’re going to sleep together within a few minutes of meeting him.

”So, what do you do?” He should know this already, but she’ll allow it.

She slowly chews, lets the act of swallowing become a performance. “I work in politics. Power behind the throne.” A smile, tight and gleaming. Another bite.

**Author's Note:**

> Yell with me on Tumblr at [withatalentforsquaddrill](https://withatalentforsquaddrill.tumblr.com) (for general bullshit) or [foresme](https://foresme.tumblr.com) (for fandom bullshit).


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